This report aims to deepen understandings of the links between decentralised governance and corruption, and the implications of such linkages and dynamics for the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures at the local level. It synthesises the findings from two indepth case studies on decentralised governance and corruption in Bangladesh and Nigeria

The new democratic government of South Africa came into power in 1994 and it inherited a dysfunctional municipalities. In fact it inherited a country with high levels of poverty, growing levels of inequality and also social dysfunctionality. The local government sphere was established in South Africa with the main aim of addressing inequality, segregation, inequity, discrimination in the provision of municipal services and eradication poverty within communities. However, ever since the establishment of local government sphere in South Africa, the sphere of local government is fraught with many challenges which make it impossible for municipalities to render proper municipal services to the members of the public. This is evident from the protests which were observed in the country ever since the year 2008 were communities demanded better services from their municipalities. This mini-dissertation therefore discusses the application of the principles of corporate governance in delivering and improving municipal service in South Africa. It further discusses the legislative framework and the institution of government which are responsible for the effective implementation of corporate governance in the local government sphere. Pursuant to that it also explains the concept of Corporate Governance within the local government. Furthermore, it discusses the parameters of the challenges that are faced by the municipalities which are ranging from fraud, nepotism, corruption and poor financial management which result in poor service delivery.

How does decentralization affect patronage and rent seeking? While centralization is seen as enabling these practices, many expect decentralization to reduce them. With few examples of meaningful reform it is difficult to establish if this is the case in the context of African states. We look at the impact of decentralization on rent seeking and patronage in Kenya, where the devolution of significant powers to county governments has recently taken place. We suggest that devolution has not removed these practices but rather brought them down to the local level in response to popular expectations that it is “everyone's turn to eat”. The realization of this expectation for a broad constituency of ethnic groups and elites has facilitated – so far – the embedding of these reforms. Our findings thus suggest that the implementation of meaningful decentralization has been achieved via the decentralization of patronage networks, meaning that the “our turn to eat” character of ethnic patronage politics persists. As a result, although a greater number of groups now have their turn, ethnic minorities within some counties feel marginalized, including certain trapped minorities from politically relevant groups.

The Imperative of Good Local Governance is a true state-of-the-art volume in the field of local governance, decentralization and local democracy summarizing a substantial part of the insights from original research in the last decade. It is also a future-looking volume with explicit policy relevance, paving the way for innovative thinking (and acting) on the next phase of development in the field. In a unique way it brings together authoritative contributions from authors that to a large extent have been defining the field for the last decade or more. From a theoretical perspective it is adjoining top–down and bottom–up rationalities, which is further illuminated through a wide variety of key case studies. The case studies are selected for their relevance for the theoretical perspectives offered, as well as for their paradigmatic power in the current global evolution of decentralized policies and politics. The volume concludes that overall, local development and local politics will not go away – it has a huge potential – but also that the field is full of unfulfilled promises, some of which could be remedied through the perspectives revealed in this volume.

This article sets out to describe recent approaches to strengthening local government within the framework of the World Bank's Municipal Management Programme (1985–95) in Sri Lanka. The article examines a number of innovations adopted within the programme that are of general relevance to the task of strengthening local government throughout the developing world. The article briefly outlines the background to the present system of local government showing that, whilst existing structures and functions remain relatively weak, a number of important innovations have been introduced to assist with the process of strengthening local resource mobilization and improving performance in service delivery, and enhancing certain aspects of accountability, particularly those areas concerned with the allocation and use of public funds. Since a number of these innovations have wide applicability to the process of local government strengthening and reform it is hoped that this article will demonstrate the practical relevance of certain key innovations for practitioners and policy makers elsewhere.